Promising cars, which announced the resumption of production at the end of last year, began to tell a "new story.". On May 3, while launching a model customization plan, Lu Qun, chairman of Qiantu Automobile, said that Qiantu Automobile is promoting a new round of financing. As one of the first batch of promising cars to get the "double qualification" of new energy vehicles and want to pass the high-end sports car product hard-rigid Tesla, it was once suspended and closed due to problems such as high product positioning and financing obstruction, until Lu Qun, who graduated from the Department of Automotive Engineering of Tsinghua University, pulled the financing of Tsinghua alumni and was able to resume production.
However, it is not easy for the restarted Future Car to regain market recognition with the original K50 model and privatization customization, and now that the investment in new energy vehicles is gradually rational, how the Future Car can arouse the confidence of the capital market has become the key.
Bet on customization
In 2018, Qiantu Automobile officially became the sixth car company in China to obtain the "double qualification" of the new pure electric passenger car, and launched the first model, the Future K50, but due to the niche of the model and the high price, the market response of the Future K50 after the listing was flat. Subsequently, Future Auto began to be blocked in financing, and once stopped production. It was not until Lu Qun found Tsinghua investors to help Future Automobile complete the T round of financing that production resumed. After the resumption of production, Qiantu Automobile played a customized service.
On May 3, Lu Qun and the T round financing customized version of the K50 and K50 convertibles appeared in the Douyin live broadcast room together, and told the thinking of the customization of the future car, which also means that the customized service has become the "killer" of the future car after the restart. The first batch of customized models of Qiantu Automobile is the T-round financing customized version of the K50, which is specially customized for 14 Tsinghua investors. In Lu Qun's view, customization is not a service, but a transformation after technological innovation. The first layer concept of customization is rich configuration, the second layer concept is one-to-one customized service, and the third layer concept is personalized user co-creation.
According to relevant sources of Qiantu Automobile, since last year, Qiantu Automobile has opened a T round of financing to Tsinghua alumni, and in mid-April, it released the Qiantu RT customized version K50 to commemorate this financing, and these 14 RT customized models will not be reproduced in the future.
"The future plans to implement this service with K50 and subsequent products. One-on-one customization is similar to the user and an exclusive team of designers and engineers to participate in the discussion of the design, to achieve personalized selection of model products. At the same time, the Future Car Mini Program will be launched, which can help consumers choose more configurations online. Lu Qun revealed that the first real user-created product will be the K50 convertible version, and Future Auto will recruit 99 co-creators to participate in the design of the convertible version. In addition, Lu Qun also revealed that the K20 model is about to open pre-sale. "It will be a model that is precisely aimed at young users aged 18-25." Lu Qun said.
At the same time as the new model was unveiled, Qiantu Automobile also actively promoted financing. Lu Qun said that at the end of last year, Qiantu Automobile officially completed the T round of financing, and is now further promoting a new round of financing plans. It is worth noting that the evening before the launch, Great Wall Huaguan, the parent company of Future Automobile, announced that it had signed a formal merger agreement with SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp. Great Wall Huaguan expects to complete the restructuring and merger and listing at the end of this year, when Future Automobile will go to an overseas IPO as an important asset component of Great Wall Huaguan, with a pre-investment valuation of US$1.25 billion.
Hematopoietic ability is key
It is worth noting that Great Wall Huaguan, the parent company of Future Automobile, was established in 2003 and officially landed on the New Third Board in September 2015, becoming the first new energy stock of the New Third Board. However, due to long-term losses, in April 2019, Great Wall Huaguan announced its withdrawal from the New Third Board. Industry insiders believe that after the Great Wall Huaguan announced the news of its upcoming listing, Qiantu Automobile released a customized plan in order to further attract the attention of the capital market.
In the automotive industry, ultra-luxury brands and niche sports car brands provide customized services. However, behind the higher model price, there are often cases where car companies have not been able to amortize operating costs due to lower production, and how to achieve profitability has become an urgent problem for promising cars that need to regain a foothold in the market as soon as possible.
Not only that, after the restart of the future car, the current product is still only a K50, and the model has previously responded mediocrely in the market, with sales of less than 200 vehicles. In the face of the fierce competitive environment in the new energy vehicle market, it is not easy for Future Automobile to "turn over" with K50 and customization.
Yan Jinghui, a member of the expert committee of the China Circulation Association, said that the K50 is not a volume model, but sets the tone for the future car brand and products. However, due to the fact that the previous brand has not received enough support and the product update is slow, the future car will use the K50 to tell a "new story" this time, which may not be enough to attract market attention.
The bottom card of Future Auto to attract the capital market is not only pure electric vehicles. In the future, Qiantu Automobile will focus on the layout of new materials, new energy and new intelligence. According to the future car plan, we will continue to deepen the application of new materials in the layout of subsequent models, reduce the quality of the whole vehicle and meet the customized needs of users through new materials. It is understood that Qiantu Automobile and its partners have been researching and developing and producing technologies such as aluminum alloy 3D printing technology, fluid metal body skeleton structure, new body connection technology and light alloy body manufacturing. Not only that, Qiantu Automobile also proposed to lay out solar photovoltaic vehicles. At present, Qiantu Automobile has reached a cooperation with Suzhou Canadian Solar Power Technology Co., Ltd., and the two sides will jointly promote the industrialization and commercial application of lightweight on-board solar photovoltaic products in the whole vehicle, and previously planned to launch the world's first solar photovoltaic vehicle in mass production this year. This means that Future Auto is restarting capital confidence through multi-party bets.
Whether it is a customized solution or a photovoltaic car, it can be seen that the future car is prepared, but how to achieve hematopoietic ability as soon as possible has also become the key. At present, photovoltaic vehicles can achieve zero emissions in the true sense, but their supporting facilities and industrial chain are still in the growth stage, and there are still many technical problems to be solved to achieve large-scale application of photovoltaic power (batteries) to complex vehicles. Industry insiders said that at present, new energy vehicles have entered the Red Sea market, not only there are new car-making forces, traditional enterprises, but also more technology companies to increase the weight, the future of the car in the new concept at the same time, but also to find a grip to provide hematopoietic capacity.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Liu Yang liu xiaomeng
![Fighting the frontline of infection prevention and control! Lu Qun, an expert in infection management: a guardian of doctors and patients[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)